Psychoanalysis-The Market:
A Study on Children’s Psyche & East Asian Culinary Culture in Preparation Stage

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In East Asian cultural contexts, culinary practice is essential in shaping the familial relationship and personal cultural identity. In many East Asian literatures, food has been the emblem bears various implications, including the materialization of the suppressed libido or the eventual reconciliation between family members. In Joy Luck Club, the maimed crab hints on the death of Mrs. Woo. In Ang Lee’s Eat Drink Man Woman, the process of preparing dishes and the food themselves are the manifestation of the culturally-suppressed emotions and the lack of expressions of love on both a familial and a personal level for widower Mr. Zhu and his three daughters. In this critical tradition, this collection of photographs displays how kids react to different scenes when their parent brings them to the market to prepare food. This page also wants to dissect and analyze the influence of such practice on the children’s psyche.

Gaze into the Gallery, March 2022

Witnessing, March 2022

Clamp, March 2022

In fact, cooking is considered as a traditional art form across East Asian culinary cultures. For instance, China has eight famous cuisines, each distinguishes itself with regional specific ingredients and practices. Japan has washoku, which places emphasis on seasonal ingredients. As an art form, the culinary practice thus carries ritualistic value and craftsmanship. By letting the child to participate, the parents are essentially taking culinary practice as a conduit for communication with their children and an opportunity to educate their children.

Awe, March 2022

Numb, April 2022

Blindness, March 2022

Dissection, March 2022

Charnel, March 2022

Purchasing ingredients may seem like a pretty trivial thing for adults who prepare meals and cook on a daily bases. However, everything would seem different from the perspective of a child. The space inside the market is not only a space that supplies every household their culinary practice but also a space for children to curiously explore the cultural taboos, which include violence, appetite, and death.

In the market, the kids will witness the slaughtering of fish and poultry. As the vessel for the expression of desire in the East Asian cultural context, food provides physical nourishment and emotional, symbolic fulfillment that is much darker and profound than we normally imagine.

“Fat Pig On Sale,” March 2022

Twinkle Stars, March 2022

Yellow Octopus, March 2022

This opportunity to educate is specific to one skill, in most cases—learning the worldly social occasions. In the market, parents would ask children to buy specific ingredients and to practice bargaining with the owner.